1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a blank for a folding box having integral carrying means.
2. Statement of the Prior Art
Boxes with carrying handles are known, although such handles are frequently formed of a different material from the box itself, usually a plastic handle and a paper box. Known integral carrying handles of conventional folding boxes require an extra material consumption of around 25% in the case of single blank panels and around 13% in the case of double or multiple blank panels. As a result, such integral handles cannot compete economically with plastic handles.
German patent application No. 28 45 720, which has the same inventor as the present invention, discloses a known integral handle folding box. To save material when working from a reel, one of the wall (i.e. non-side) flaps of the blank described in this prior art is alternately shortened on top and underneath. The blank can be folded into a powder-tight folding box, on which one wall flap is shortened by a fairly considerable amount, for example to one third, in a staggered arrangement. A tear open perforation may even be provided in the shortened wall flap. In an alternative embodiment, the prior art folding box blank may also be designed in such a way that the assembled and glued box shows undivided top and bottom surfaces, by gluing the unshortened wall flap as an outer flap onto the other side and other wall flaps.
In addition, German Utility Model No. 82/10,781 describes a box blank in which the wall flaps are shortened to approximately two thirds of the depth of the assembled box both on top and underneath. The corresponding assembled box has divided top and bottom surfaces.
A box produced from the blank according to German patent application No. 28 45 720 can be made powder-tight by relief embossings and cutouts corresponding to the relief embossings. The relief embossings and corresponding cutouts may be provided either on the side flaps or on the wall flaps, depending on the folding and gluing sequence of the side flaps with the shortened wall flaps.
If desired, the known folding box may be provided with a carrying handle in the form of a strip of plastic fixed in the side walls by rivets or the like.